Kasich wants Ohio to expand Medicaid eligibility in 2014

Republican Gov. John Kasich this afternoon announced he'd like Ohio to move forward with an expansion of Medicaid eligibility in 2014 — a key component of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year individual states could sidestep.
The expansion would provide health care coverage to adults living at up to 138% of the federal poverty level, which equates to about $32,000 per year for a family of four and $15,400 per year for an individual.
Gov. Kasich noted during an afternoon press conference where his budget proposal was unveiled that he was still an ardent opponent of the individual insurance mandate outlined under Obamacare. However, he said the Medicaid expansion was the right thing to do for uninsured Ohioans and the hospitals they frequent.
“They get their primary care in an emergency room,” Gov. Kasich said. “That is not the best way to get people primary care. Not only is it not good for them because it doesn't allow them to get healthy, secondly it drives up the cost of everybody's health insurance … I don't think that's a sustainable way to do business in Ohio when it comes to health care.”
Under Obamacare, the federal government has pledged to pick up the full tab for the first three years of the Medicaid expansion. Thereafter, the feds would cover 95%, which draws down to 90% over time. The nonpartisan Health Policy Institute of Ohio estimated recently that the Medicaid expansion could bring $1.4 billion in federal health care dollars to the state.
Should the state forgo the Medicaid expansion, Northeast Ohio hospitals would continue to stomach millions of dollars in bad debt brought on by providing care for the uninsured. In addition, reductions in subsidies for hospitals that care for a disproportionate volume of uninsured payments are expected to dry up under Obamacare. Had Ohio chosen not to play ball with the feds, local hospitals could lose those subsidies and the additional Medicaid dollars.
Ohio hospitals lobbied hard for the expansion. The Greater Cleveland Partnership, the regional chamber of commerce, joined the chorus of supporters last week, with its president Joe Roman saying in a statement the state would “face undue financial harm” if it didn't go forward with the expansion.